Designers of a new theater complex on Commonwealth Avenue are quickly developing plans to meet the fall 2017 deadline, said the Boston University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Jean Morrison.
The plans for the new theater were unveiled March 10 during a Brookline Planning Board meeting. The new theater will be built to replace the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue after BU ended its relationship with the Huntington Theatre Company in October 2015, The Daily Free Press reported Jan. 22.
BU President Robert Brown committed $50 million to be used for the new complex, renovations to the College of Fine Arts façade at 855 Commonwealth Ave. and expansions to the graphic design space, said Interim Dean of CFA Lynne Allen.
Morrison said she anticipates the entire project will cost more than $50 million, and that the specific allocation of funds is currently up in the air.
“In terms of how our budgets work, we think of the production and design center and the theater as one project, and so it’s not clear what the precise breakdown will be,” Morrison said. “We’re moving as quickly as is possible … Our goal is to get the facilities ready for occupancy by fall 2017.”
The new facility is going to be a black box studio theater, meaning a square space that will be equipped with seating on all four sides of the theater. The theater will also include a second floor with a catwalk and additional seating, Morrison added.
Morrison also explained that the theater is set to house a new production and design facility that will be used for scene construction, wardrobe and other aspect of theater production.
The theater will face out onto the street and will be adjacent to the building at 808 Commonwealth Ave., where a number of CFA activities are held, Morrison said. The theater will also be more accessible for CFA students and faculty, because the previous theater was located on Huntington Avenue, approximately two miles away from BU’s Charles River Campus, Morrison said.
Because the land for the new theater is located in Brookline, BU is currently in the process of working out permits with the City of Brookline, Morrison said.
“Right now, we’re still developing the details of the project,” Morrison said. “We’re in a stage where we’re doing a lot of planning and iterations to the design and the program.”
Morrison said students and faculty in the School of Theatre are universally excited to move into a space on campus.
“I am unimaginably ecstatic about the progress that’s been made on this,” SOT professor Paolo DiFabio said. “I think the benefits — not only to the School of Theatre community, but to the university at large — are numerous and expansive and very exciting to think about.”
DiFabio, who previously served as the assistant director of the SOT, said the physical divide of the school has been a problem for as long as he can remember.
“There were these subsets of populations that could really go the four-year span without ever interacting within one of the smallest schools at Boston University,” DiFabio said.
Several students expressed their excitement for the new theater and said they hoped the theater will better integrate SOT students to life on campus.
Emma Cooney is a freshman in the School of Visual Arts who has worked on theater productions in the past. She said she looks forward to getting to use the new space in 2017 and hopes it will attract broader audiences.
“Having the new theater on campus and across the street from the CFA will be so much more convenient,” she said. “Everyone in the school puts so much time, skill and creativity into each production, so of course it would be wonderful to see that work reach a larger audience.”
Jessica Deitsch, a freshman in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said that she would be much more likely to see productions if they take place on campus.
“If there are going to be more CFA theater performances closer to me, I’d definitely be more likely to attend,” she said.
Will Anderson, a freshman in the SOT, said he hoped that more of his peers will come out to see the work of the students in the new space.
“I would love to see people from outside of the CFA come to the productions,” he said. “The entire SOT community is excited about the space, and we’re looking forward to have a large venue to share our art on campus.”
